Bagless vacuum cleaners have become very popular over the last several years. This popularity is due in large part to the ease with which dust and dirt can be removed from such vacuum cleaners. In old style cloth bag-containing vacuum cleaners, dust and dirt removal is a difficult and awkward process, frequently requiring the user to extend his or her hand into the cloth bag to physically disengage dust clumps. Vacuum cleaners using disposable liner bags minimize the problems associated with cloth bags, but the use of such vacuum cleaners requires the continuous replenishment and installation of disposable liner bags. (Also, owners of older model disposable liner bag-containing vacuum cleaners often find it difficult to locate a source of properly sized replacement liner bags.)
Contrary to these problems associated with bag-containing vacuum cleaners, dirt and dust vacuumed up using bagless vacuum cleaners is conveniently deposited into an easily removable permanent container, from which dust and dirt can be disposed of without the effort associated with cloth bag-containing vacuum cleaners and without having to continually purchase and reinstall disposable liner bags.
Bagless vacuum cleaners of the prior art, however, have not been fully satisfactory. Most bagless vacuum cleaners have not demonstrated the ability to fully disengage dust and dirt from the vacuum air stream. Those prior art bagless vacuum cleaners which have been reasonably successful in disengaging dust and dirt from the vacuum air stream have required a high degree of mechanical complexity. Such mechanical complexity has tended to make those prior art bagless vacuum cleaners unduly expensive to manufacture and maintain.
Accordingly, there is a need for a bagless vacuum cleaner which avoids these problems with the prior art.